The sky above Chang'an City is cloudless and clear.
The morning light falls from the sky on the east side of Daming Palace, like a golden glow, shining brightly.
Li Xuan was wearing a purple official robe and walked out of the Danfeng Gate with a gentle look on her face. The jade jewel on her waist rang softly, solemnly but with a hint of indifference.
A group of anxious new scholars outside the door raised their eyes immediately when they heard the sound.
Seeing Li Xuan, everyone immediately bowed at the same time, cupped their hands and shouted: "Students have seen Shaohonglu Temple."
Announcement is the duty of Honglu Temple.
Li Xuan stood still, looked at everyone calmly, raised his hands, and slowly opened the imperial edict in his hand.
Under the morning light, Li Xuan read out word by word: "In the third year of the Yuan Dynasty, Bingzi's imperial examination was held on the seventh day of the third lunar month. He was planning to test the world, and the performance review was in order. It was announced that Bingzi was the first to enter the imperial examination... "
The first person in the first class, the number one scholar. As many Jinshis present bowed, their ears stood up.
"The first place in the first class is from Zheng County, Shaanxi Province, Cheng Xingmou." After Li Xuan finished speaking, among the many Jinshi, a kind and honest young man with slightly worn-out clothes immediately couldn't help but look up in surprise, and then hurried forward, suppressing his heart Excited, he cupped his hands towards Li Xuan and said: "Student, student..."
Li Xuan shook her head slightly and said softly: "My lord!"
"Your Majesty, Cheng Xingmou, thanks the Emperor for his kindness!" Cheng Xingmou bowed his head deeply to the ground.
No one knows how heavy the pressure is on his heart. Ever since he won the first place in the imperial examination, how many people have said that he is not worthy of the position. When the imperial examination comes, the number one candidate chosen by His Majesty will definitely be Xu Qie, a member of the aristocratic family.
If it weren't for what others said, Cheng Xingmou's mind would have been extremely complicated. I'm afraid that during the palace examination, due to his confusion, he made a mistake in answering the questions and ultimately missed the top spot. Fortunately, he survived.
Now, after Your Highness, he is still the number one candidate for Your Majesty.
For a time, Cheng Xingmou had a lot of thoughts in his mind.
Li Xuan nodded slightly and said, "Get up and stand on one side."
"Here!" Cheng Xingmou immediately stood up and stood on one side with his hands folded.
Li Xuan looked at the others calmly and continued to read: "Bingzi Jinshi, first and second place, Anzhou Anlu Xujie."
Wearing a blue satin robe, Xu Jie, a handsome young man, stepped forward respectfully, cupped his hands and said, "I, Xu Jie, thank you for your kindness!"
"Get up and stand on one side."
"Here!"
"Bingzi Jinshi Department, third place in the first class, Wuzhou Zhuge Minghui."
Zhuge Minghui, who was wearing a blue robe, stepped forward and held his hands with a solemn expression: "My lord, Zhuge Minghui, thanks the emperor for his kindness!"
Li Xuan nodded slightly and said: "Get up and stand on one side!"
"Here!"
…
A group of new scholars, led by Li Xuan, the young minister of Honglu Temple, lined up and entered the Hanyuan Hall together to thank the emperor.
The emperor comforted and encouraged him and preached about current affairs. After a while, all the Jinshi resigned one after another.
After saying a few words about political affairs, the emperor withdrew from the court and the ministers withdrew.
Li Xuan breathed a sigh of relief. Today's affairs are not over yet, he still has to prepare for the Qujiang Banquet.
The Qujiang Banquet originated from the time of Emperor Gaozu. It was a banquet given by the imperial court to the emperor's son, also known as the Qujiang Banquet.
But the Qujiang Feast was not pleasant to hear, so it was only called the Qujiang Feast.
The imperial court gave a banquet in Qujiang Garden to the candidates who failed to take the exam in Beijing to show the court's comfort. At the same time, the imperial court allowed the failed candidates to stay in Chang'an, stay in temples, practice poetry and essays, and strive to take the exam again next time.
However, in recent years, in addition to giving banquets to the failed candidates, Qu Jiang, a newly admitted scholar, was also invited to the banquet to congratulate his grades.
The Qujiang Banquet was jointly organized by the Ministry of Officials, the Ministry of Rites and Honglu Temple.
Li Xuan, Liu Boying, the minister of Honglu Temple, Li Huaiyan, the minister of rites, and Liu Sili, the minister of merit examination of the Ministry of Personnel, discussed and left.
At this moment, a chamberlain came forward and called Li Xuan: "Your Majesty, Your Highness the Crown Prince invites you."
Li Xuan was stunned for a moment, then cupped her hands and said, "I will come over immediately."
Turning around, Li Xuan glanced at Liu Boying with a slightly worried look, and Liu Boying shook his head slightly.
Li Xuan was convinced, then looked at Li Huayan and Liu Sili, cupped his hands and said: "Both of you, Your Highness has an edict, Xuan will go first."
"Your Majesty, please!" Li Huayan and Liu Sili watched Li Xuan leave, then sighed softly and said, "I hope yesterday's incident will end soon."
Liu Boying nodded and walked out while saying: "Just after the palace door opened today, a decree came out from the palace that the prince Hu Zai, a member of the family, should be demoted to the governor of Bo, and the secretary and young eunuch Zheng Fan should be demoted to the governor of You."
When Li Huayan and Liu Sili first heard the news, they were extremely shocked, but then they couldn't help asking: "This is it?"
Prince Zhongshe was born in the fifth rank, Bozhou, Jisuzhou, Jisuzhou Governor Shi, and was in the sixth rank.
Secretary Shaojian, from the fourth rank, Youzhou, Shangzhou, Shangzhou Governor Shi, from the fifth rank.
This derogation directly demoted a large level.
"This is His Majesty's opinion, written by the Queen himself." Liu Boying's indifferent words completely blocked the future prospects of Hu Zai and Zheng Fan.
Fortunately for Hu Zai, he is the prince's man after all. If the prince ascends the throne in the future, he may be recalled directly.
But Zheng Fan was finished. The emperor was not happy, the queen was disgusted, and the prince was disgusted. In addition, although the Zheng family was not involved in the matter of concealing the princess, it still made the emperor and empress remember it.
If they remain silent, that's fine. Once they show up, they will be hit directly.
Li Huaiyan felt awe-struck, his family was only one step away.
On the contrary, Liu Sili said with some confusion: "The lower official is a little confused. The Zheng family and the Lu family are not confused. Why do they act randomly at this time?"
You must know that the demotion of Hu Zai and Zheng Fan is not the end, on the contrary, it is just the beginning. The future official careers of Zheng and Lu as governors and county magistrates in local states will be affected.
"It seems to be done indiscriminately, but it is not a smart way to escape." Liu Boying said calmly, and then took the lead to walk away.
Li Huayan and Liu Sili were confused when they heard this.
Why is it not a random act, but a smart way out?
Is there something they don't understand?
…
Walking alone on the Imperial City Street, Li Xuan was also thinking about this issue.
Li Xuan also just learned from Li Xian that Hu Zai, the prince's subordinate, was demoted to the governor of Bo, and Zheng Fan, the secretary and young eunuch, was demoted to the governor of You.
The Emperor and Empress Wu acted very quickly. Almost immediately after last night, they found out who was behind the scenes and made a decision overnight.
What Li Xuan didn't understand was why Zheng Fan and Hu Zai immediately packed up and left without any hesitation after the emperor's order.
Even before the morning court began, the two people left Chang'an with their families.
It's like they have been waiting for this result for a long time.
Now among the four people on his list, only Zhou Zhi and Cui Fan are left.
Li Xuan couldn't help but wonder if the contents of the list in his hand had been leaked, making people alert.
That's why he cut off his arm so quickly to survive.
This extremely neat method is too familiar.
However, Zheng Fan and Hu Zai's matters came second. What Li Xuan really cared about was Zhou Zhi.
Now, although all the Qianniu Guards and Jinwu Guards around Zhou Zhi have disappeared, he is always under Li Xuan's surveillance.
Of course Li Xuan would not appear in front of him to monitor him. He just arranged the Qianniu Guard and Jinwu Guard out of Zhou Zhi's sight.
There are only three places Zhou Zhi goes to on weekdays, Menxiasheng, Pingkangfang, and home.
So as long as people are deployed outside this route, Zhou Zhi will naturally not see anything on this road on weekdays, but once he deviates from his daily route, he will be stared at immediately, and he may not be able to find it himself.
If anyone else wants to get close to Zhou Zhi, everyone will be checked from a long distance.
Zhou Zhi is the turtle in the urn, and people inside and outside Li Xuan are watching him. What he now suspects is somewhere else.
Nowadays, the higher the official position of the people they come into contact with, the more cautious they seem to be. If there is any slight disturbance, they will immediately cut off their tails to survive.
Just like the Lu family and the Zheng family, Li Xuan didn't know where she had exposed her flaws and let them get wind of it.
If they continue to stay in Chang'an, even if the entire family is not wiped out, once they are found to be related to Tubo, the entire family will inevitably suffer heavy losses.
But everything is different now. As long as they can erase all the previous traces, then naturally no one will track them down, and there is a high possibility that nothing can be tracked down.
Li Xuan now really doubts that some of his secret actions have been noticed by Lu and Zheng.
But how is this possible? Li Xuan was extremely careful this time. Even Ming Chongyan didn't know the actual manpower used inside and outside, let alone other people.
Could it be that it was really just because he suspected something was wrong that he immediately cut off all contact with other people?
Although Li Xuan was extremely reluctant to believe it, this was also the most likely possibility.
In addition, the most impossible possibility is that the actions he secretly planned and the things he is doing now have really been known to a few people.
It is impossible for the internal core to leak secrets, because the real defense of these people in his core is always in the palace.
If something goes wrong with these people, the palace must be the first to know.
Since it was Lu and Zheng Shi who behaved abnormally this time, not the palace, this means that someone among the people he secretly manipulated on the outside leaked the secret.
For countless years, aristocratic families have been married to each other, and their disciples and former officials are spread all over the world.
No one knows where the people he is using are related to?
It’s time to learn a lesson.
"It's really interesting to be able to pay attention to people in that area. These aristocratic families are really scary." Although Li Xuan was extremely obscure, and even those people didn't know what he wanted to do, but bystanders knew clearly that people with intentions As long as you know who he is touching, you can immediately connect everything.
Already alerted.
Fortunately, the snake that shocked him was the same snake he was hunting.
The snake is still hiding behind everything, watching everything with vigilance.
If he was given enough time, he might actually be able to see through the secret behind this, but unfortunately, he didn't have much time.
Li Xuan stood in front of the door of the household department, took a deep look inside, then turned and left.
…
Qujiang Pool, Qujiang Pavilion, Qujiang Banquet.
Li Xuan sat on a tall horse, followed by Li Zhu, surrounded by several Qianniu guards closely guarding him.
On the street, clean and brightly dressed men and women, as well as merchants and vendors carrying various snacks, began to gradually gather towards Qujiang.
Over the years, the Qujiang banquet held by the imperial court to entertain failed students and new scholars has gradually become a large-scale entertainment event for Chang'an Qingcheng.
Li Xuan rode the horse at a slow speed and watched with a smile as a failed student and a new Jinshi arrived.
Earlier than them, at this moment, they were admitted by the official's examination doctor and many officials under his command.
Nominally speaking, they are the teachers of these new scholars and are qualified to accept the thanks of their disciples.
Of course, Li Xuan is also qualified. Although it is a bit biased, to put it bluntly, there are some, but there are only few people.
In addition to Xinke Jinshi, other ministers and relatives and friends of Xinke Jinshi came to congratulate him.
Some dignitaries even brought their wives and young ladies to look for good husbands among the young newcomers.
Although it is not popular nowadays to catch a son-in-law, unmarried Jinshi among the new Jinshi are the most popular figures in the entire Tang Dynasty today.
The entire Qujiang Garden is full of cars with bead saddles, gold whips and jade stirrups, and red men and women come in droves.
(End of chapter)
